Guayaquil, Ecuador, July 25 (AFP/APP): Some 2,700 soldiers stormed a prison in Ecuador Tuesday to “retake control” as the death toll from a riot that started three days earlier rose to 18 inmates, officials said.
According to the prosecutor’s office, “the deaths of 18 prisoners are confirmed,” while 11 people including a policeman were injured in the ongoing confrontation between rival gangs at the overcrowded, violence-riddled Guayas 1 prison in the port city of Guayaquil.
The armed forces, meanwhile, said troops and police entered the prison on Tuesday morning to restore order and search for arms, ammunition, explosives and other illegal items used in running battles.
The raid came as the government declared a state of emergency, in force in all prisons, for 60 days following the latest in a string of bloody riots that have claimed at least 420 lives in Ecuadoran prisons since 2021 — many of the victims beheaded or burnt alive.
The riots pit gangs with links to drug traffickers against one another in a country that has emerged as a key player in the South American cocaine trade.
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